'Duped' women head to Supreme Court to overturn divorce settlements

Two women who contend they were ‘duped’ into accepting unfair divorce settlements because their husbands hid assets are heading to the Supreme Court in a bit to get the settlements overturned. If the court rules in their favour, it could pave the way for many more people to seek to re-negotiate settlements and could have far reaching consequences.

The court will decide whether divorce settlements can be re-negotiated if either side is found to have been dishonest, or whether they can only be re-opened if the dishonesty was "material" - meaning it was significant enough to have impacted the settlement decision.

England and Wales, and London in particular, is seen by many as the divorce capital of the world. The reason is that for most marriages of any significant duration, there is a 50/50 split of the couple's wealth.

That means that there is a huge incentive for the person with the wealth not to disclose those assets.
Have the courts have been too tolerant of people not disclosing their assets? If one partner is dishonest should that allow the other partner to re-negotiate the settlement?

In 2010 one of the ex-husbands was convicted of money laundering and jailed for 10 years. At his criminal trial, evidence revealed he had failed to disclose his true wealth in divorce proceedings. However, the Court of Appeal ruled that information that emerged at his criminal trial could not be used to overturn the couple's settlement.

The lawyers for the husbands have stated that the settlements were ‘fair and reasonable.’